Doing an Indoor Air Quality Assessments

On the ride down from the PACNY conference, we caught up on reading an article written by Dr. Robert C. Brandys in Indoor Environment Connections. The title of the article was “Assessing the Cancer Risk of Indoor Environments.” We thought it was an interesting and informative article. We also note the coincidence that we were recently having a conversation, with one of our clients, regarding this very issue. The article is an excellent reference for the various chemical risk assessment standards that are available and goes into an excellent discussion of the pros and cons of conducting a chemical risk assessment. We strongly recommend those of you who are struggling with indoor air quality testing and interpreting the results of volatile organic compounds and such, read this article and incorporate the references into your indoor air quality investigations and reports.

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PACNY Conference Opens on Thursday, February 25, 2010

This Thursday, February 25, 2010 opens the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY) 14th Annual Environmental Conference at Turning Stone Casino, in Verona, New York.  This is the premier event in New York State regarding the abatement field.  Between the Vendor Exhibit Hall (recently spoke with Mr John Hill of Grayling Industries, they will be exhibiting) and the industry speakers (including Chris Alonge from New York State Department of Labor (DOL)) this is THE event to attend.  This year marks the return of Craig Benedict from the US Attorney's Office, he will be discussing "Recent Criminial Prosecutions: Remediation, Laboratory, and Project Monitoring Fraud."  Considering recent press releases this should be an interesting discussion.  With new Environmental Protection Agency regulations going to effect on renovators Mr. Andrew McClellen's presentation should be informative.  Of course on the last day of the event; will Mr. Chris Alonge be dropping any bombshells on the attendees this year.  Based on previous presentations by Mr. Alonge (see our entry on 11/25/09 on the Metro-Section of the AIHA's meeting http://futureenv.blogspot.com/2009/11/results-of-metro-ny-aihas-ehs-global.html) could the long anticipated revision of Industrial Code Rule 56 be available?  We shall see.  I will be attending as I usually do, remember Turning Stone is a dry casino so BYOB, and I hope to see you there.

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Wall Street Journal Reports on PCB Dredging Operations

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On December 7, 2009 we wrote about the dredging operations on the Hudson River (http://futureenv.blogspot.com/2009/12/hudson-river-pcb-dredging-good-bad-ugly.html).  On January 21, 2010 the Wall Street Journal reported that higher PCB levels were found during the Hudson River dredging operations.  Both General Electric and the EPA released draft evaluations of the project.  Both reports found higher levels of PCBs than originally anticipated, putting into question the performance standards for the project.

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Future Environment Designs discussion "The Pollution Within"

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In 2006 we discussed in our blog Future Environment Designs: "The Pollution Within" from Plattsburgh, NY about an article we read in National Geographic about all the different chemicals we have inside our body.  Its interesting that on November 7, 2009 that the New York Times Op-Ed Columnist by Nicolas Kristof (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/opinion/08kristof.html) wrote "Chemicals in our Foods and Bodies".  Specifically discussing the issues with bisphenol A (BPA), its a synthetic estrogen used in plastics.  Some of you might even know that Suffolk County, New York has banned it.  BPA has been linked to a number of illnesses from breast cancer to obesity, from attention deficit disorder to genital abnormalities in boys and girls alike (not conclusively).  So all of this still begs the question when are we going to do complete research on the chemicals we use to determine whether by themselves or multiple chemicals together cause or can cause illnesses or cancers.

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EPA Announces Agreement with NYC Schools on PCBs in Caulk

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EPA announced an agreement with New York City on the handling of PolyChlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in caulk.  In our blog post http://futureenv.blogspot.com/2008/04/pcbs-in-caulk-making-headlines.html and in our Autumn 2008 Newsletter (http://futureenvironmentdesigns.com/archives.htm?ID=4311505&s=16687015)
we fully discussed this issue.  This press release announces that NYC has entered into an agreement with EPA to develop a program in handling these materials.  The agreement should help protect children from being potentially exposed to PCBs in window caulk.

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New Information on the Mesothelioma Mechanisms

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Found this information on the different ways asbestos may cause mesothelioma.

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Excellant Article by Will Spates on Being an Expert Witness

I recently read Mr. Will Spate's article in Indoor Environment Connection's November issue (yes, I know, it takes me a month to catch up on my reading) on "Do You Qualify To Be An Expert Witness".  Mr. Spates is the President of Indoor Environmental Technologies, Clearwater, Florida and the article provided several pieces of information that I did not know.  Such as the difference between an expert witness and a percipient witness and the need for your reports to comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26.  I strongly recommend that if you are an environmental consultant that you read this article, because it applies even if you are not an expert witness.  You never know when you may end up in court to defend your reports and advice you gave.